Werewere Liking (born 1950, in Cameroon) is a writer, playwright and performer based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. She established the Ki-Yi Mbock theatre troupe in 1980 and founded the Ki-Yi village in 1985 for the artistic education of young people.

Werewere Liking
Born1950
NationalityCameroonian
Occupation(s)stage performer, writer
AwardsPrince Claus Award in 2000

Her novel Elle sera de jaspe et de corail is a song-novel recounted by an astute misovire (literally 'man-hater' from misos Gr. "hate" and vir Lat. "man") in writing a journal on nine themes as a dialectic between two men wherein the author of the journal imagines a new race of people uninhibited by the historical baggage of patriarchy and colonialism.[1] She is the author of the African feminist theory "misovirism."[2]

She received a Prince Claus Award in 2000 for her contributions to culture and society, and the Noma Award in 2005 for her book La mémoire amputée.[3]

Writing

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Her books and plays include:

  • La mémoire amputée, Nouvelles Editions Ivoiriennes (2004), ISBN 2-84487-236-0
  • Elle sera de jaspe et de corail, Editions L'Harmattan (1983), ISBN 2-85802-329-8 - trans. Marjolijn De Jager, It shall be of jasper and coral; and, Love-across-a-hundred-lives (two novels), University Press of Virginia (2000), ISBN 0-8139-1942-8
  • La puissance de Um (1979) and Une nouvelle terre (1980) - trans. Jeanne Dingome, African Ritual Theatre: The Power of Um and a New Earth, International Scholars Pubs. (1997), ISBN 1-57309-066-2

Further reading

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  • Simon Gikandi, Encyclopedia of African Literature, Routledge (2002), ISBN 0-415-23019-5 - pp. 288–9
  • Katheryn Wright, Extending generic boundaries: Werewere Liking's L'amour-cent-vies, in Research in African Literatures, June 2002 accessed at [1] March 5, 2007
  • Don Rubin, World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre: Africa, Routledge (2000), ISBN 0-415-22746-1
  • Nicki Hitchcott, Women Writers in Francophone Africa, Berg Publishers (2000), ISBN 1-85973-346-8 - focuses on Mariama Bâ, Aminata Sow Fall, Werewere Liking and Calixthe Beyala: see publisher's details [2]
  • Peter Hawkins, Werewere Liking at the Villa Ki-Yi, in African Affairs, Vol.90, No.359 (Apr. 1991), pp. 207–222 - accessed at [3] March 1, 2007

Notes

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  1. ^ Mielle, Michael (2000). "Werewere Liking and Aesthetics of Necessity". Contemporary Postcolonial & Postimperial Literature in English. Archived from the original on 2021-06-12. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  2. ^ Zabus, Chantal J. (2013). Out in Africa: Same-sex Desire in Sub-Saharan Literatures & Cultures. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-84701-082-7.
  3. ^ "Noma Award 2005". Archived from the original on 2007-03-04. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
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